Field Notes from a Catastrophe

Starred review from December 5, 2005
On the burgeoning shelf of cautionary but occasionally alarmist books warning about the consequences of dramatic climate change, Kolbert's calmly persuasive reporting stands out for its sobering clarity. Expanding on a three-part series for the New Yorker
, Kolbert (The Prophet of Love
) lets facts rather than polemics tell the story: in essence, it's that Earth is now nearly as warm as it has been at any time in the last 420,000 years and is on the precipice of an unprecedented "climate regime, one with which modern humans have had no prior experience." An inexorable increase in the world's average temperature means that butterflies, which typically restrict themselves to well-defined climate zones, are now flitting where they've never been found before; that nearly every major glacier in the world is melting rapidly; and that the prescient Dutch are already preparing to let rising oceans reclaim some of their land. In her most pointed chapter, Kolbert chides the U.S. for refusing to sign on to the Kyoto Accord. In her most upbeat chapter, Kolbert singles out Burlington, Vt., for its impressive energy-saving campaign, which ought to be a model for the rest of the nation—just as this unbiased overview is a model for writing about an urgent environmental crisis.

April 1, 2006
In the wake of Tim Flannery's persuasive The Weather Makers, Kolbert offers another excellent overview of global warming and the environmental repercussions that are already being felt around the world. Expanding on her three-part New Yorker series, which won the American Association for the Advancement of Science 2005 Science Journalism Award, she clearly presents her discussions with scientists and politicians. Especially impressive is the way she makes the science comprehensible to nonscientists while sharply delineating the political issues. Charles Wolforth's The Whale and the Supercomputer: On the Northern Front of Climate Change addresses the scientific research and environmental consequences in one locality, but Kolbert takes a more rounded look at global warming's scientific, political, and social effects. Along with Flannery's title, these books make impressive additions to the literature. Recommended for school, academic, and public libraries.Betty Galbraith, Owen Science & Engineering Lib., Washington State Univ., Pullman

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